Chuck Garno speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Chuck Garno speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Amanda Carney speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Amanda Carney speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Michael Aldridge speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Michael Aldridge speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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The Stone brothers, Jerry and Ronald, right speak to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

The Stone brothers, Jerry and Ronald, right speak to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Allie Hart, left and Janelle Whitman spoke to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Allie Hart, left and Janelle Whitman spoke to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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M. Dan McClellan speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

M. Dan McClellan speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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M. Dan McClellan speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

M. Dan McClellan speaks to the Times Union about the proposed Tupper mountain development in Tupper Lake, N.Y. April 17, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Photo: Skip Dickstein

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Ground zero in Adirondacks debate

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TUPPER LAKE — Inside what years ago was a family-owned department store, Mike Trivieri put together an ornate decorative branch railing for a new Cuban-style restaurant meant to fit in at an upscale ski resort town.

A few miles away, the aging, undersized double-chair ski lift at Big Tupper mountain sat idle, looking like the outdated artifact it is. What the future holds for the mountain will help determine whether the new restaurant is a boom or a bust.

Closed for the summer, Big Tupper, and the nearby quiet Adirondack village of Tupper Lake — both a few decades removed from their heydays — are at the center of a debate over the future direction of private land within the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park.

The village and its 3,700 residents could become home to the largest development ever approved by the state Adirondack Park Agency, which in January ended seven years of contentious review to clear the project by a 10-1 vote.

The planned 6,200-acre Adirondack Club and Resort is being greeted as economic salvation by people like Trivieri, a woodcarver and 30-year resident of the town. "I started here as a logger," said Trivieri, 50, whose daughter attends the local high school. "Once that slowed down, I went into making furniture and statuary. This project will help the town."

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Once finished over a planned 15-year schedule, the project could surround the ski mountain with nearly 700 homes, a 60-room inn, 39 large "great camps" on vast forest tracts of hundreds of acres, a marina on Lake Simond along Route 30 and more than 15 miles of new roads, sewer water and electric lines.

It could remake the economy of the village, where more than four adults in every 10 work for state, county or local government; the largest employer is the nearby 1,700-employee Sunmount state residential center for the disabled.

"If the resort opens, it will mean a lot more tourist job openings," sad Allie Hart, who was buying soft drinks at the local Stewart's as she wheeled a carriage with her 8-month-old son, Gavin. "It can be hard to find a job in this town." She had left a job at Sunmount several years ago and has not found a new job since.

A few feet away, lifelong village residents Ronald and Jerry Stone were nursing coffees. Both men are retired, and had worked at Sunmount, like almost everyone who talked to a reporter about the resort project.

"I like everything about it," said Ronald, a retired teacher at the facility. He said he expected spending from resort residents and visitors to "trickle down" into the village's quiet downtown and morph it into a "mini Lake Placid."

But, added Stone, half-joking, "If I didn't support it, in this town, I would not give you my real name." Indeed, a couple of people did raise doubts about the size of the project but did not want to provide their names to a reporter.

"It's too big. It could increase assessments and property taxes, and increase the prices that you have to pay for food, for gas, for everything," said a man in his 50s, who identified himself only as "Brian" and said he is a lifelong resident who also worked at Sunmount.

Decades ago, when the timber industry was humming, the village hummed with it, said mayor Paul Maroun as he watched the interior of the new Cuban restaurant take shape. "This town used to have five hotels at one time. Now we have none."

Still, the village is hardly derelict — it has two supermarkets, several hardware stores, two chain drugstores, and a main street that is predominantly occupied. The new Wild Center museum just outside of town has proved to be a tourist draw.

Like much of upstate and New York in general, Tupper Lake is slowly getting older and losing residents. Between 2000 and 2010, the median age of a Tupper Laker rose from about 36 years old to 40 (New York's median age is 38), and over the last two decades, the population has dipped from about 4,100 to about 3,700, according to U.S. census records.

And government employment plays a much bigger role in Tupper Lake than it does even in Albany. About 43 percent of village residents work for federal, state or local government, while in Albany, the figure is about 27 percent, census figures show.

Sunmount's share of the local economy is immense. While the village's median household income is about $38,400, well below the state median of about $54,200, it still compares favorably with Albany's median of about $39,100.

And those in the village with government jobs are better off than their counterparts who work for the private sector, where a worker has a median wage of about $28,600 annually, according to census figures. That's about $15,000 less than the typical state worker.

"If Sunmount ever were to close, my god, I don't know what would happen to this village," said Ronald Stone. His daughter still lives in the village and teaches at the elementary school. "It is a good job," he said.

But the best incomes are found among the village's self-employed people who own their own incorporated businesses, who have an annual median income $57,600, the census found.

"This resort will drive employments at all levels," said McClelland, whose paper has supported the project from the beginning. "There will be a lot of retail, and caretaker and landscaping jobs."

He said opponents of the project are trying to keep the village from changing. "They are worried that they will have to wait in line to get coffee," he said.

"Right now, this project is just a theory," said Chuck Garno, a 74-year-old who with his wife lives on Park Avenue, the village's main drag where the future could bring the most change. "But it all depends on a what if... They are taking an awful chance."

Garno is a retired grocery store supervisor and has lived in the region his entire life. "Take a look at this street. They have got to do something for the little communities that are slowly dying," he said. "If it works, it will be fantastic."